The US Senate on Thursday narrowly rejected a resolution calling for an end to the war with Iran, but the political fractures surrounding the conflict are rapidly widening within the Republican Party.
On Thursday, the Senate voted down a bill demanding an end to the US war with Iran by a slim margin. The vote tally was 49 in favor and 50 against.
This "concurrent resolution" brought under the War Powers Act carries no legal force and does not require the president's signature, making it essentially a symbolic statement.
However, the national average gasoline price has climbed to $4.48 per gallon, and the persistent economic pressure is pushing the war to the center of midterm election politics, leaving the ruling Republicans in a difficult position.
With less than six weeks remaining before the midterm elections, some Republican lawmakers have begun publicly distancing themselves from the Trump administration, instead calling for an end to the war to ease voters' dissatisfaction with high gas prices. This shift shows that the economic cost of the war is evolving from a policy dispute into an election variable.
One-Vote Margin Reveals Republican Split
In this vote, four Republican senators voted in favor of the resolution: Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was the only member to vote against it.
Maryland Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks was unable to participate in the vote. Her spokesperson Meredith Happy said Alsobrooks could not attend due to an urgent family matter that day, but she had previously voted 13 times in support of ending the war with Iran.
Notably, even if Alsobrooks had attended and voted in favor, the resolution would still have ended in a 50-50 tie and would have been rejected under the rules.
Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who has led this series of legislative efforts, said President Trump is currently "violating the Constitution, the War Powers Act, and the concurrent resolution already passed by Congress."
He pointed out that the Senate had previously passed a similar resolution, but the White House ignored it on the grounds that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Battle Behind the Symbolic Vote
This "concurrent resolution" follows a procedural path that allows it to take effect without the president's signature, and it requires only 50 votes in the Senate to pass, a lower threshold than ordinary legislation.
Democratic proponents argue that the power to declare war belongs to Congress under the Constitution, and the president must comply with Congress's explicit opposition regardless of whether he signs the resolution. The resolution was already passed by the House of Representatives in July of this year.
Kaine said that as the administration repeatedly delays seeking congressional authorization for the war, the anti-war camp has seen a rising trend of Republican support in several recent votes. He said:
The American public's opposition to this war is only growing, and we hope that over time, more people will join us.
High Oil Prices Become a Key Variable in the Midterm Elections
According to American Automobile Association (AAA) data, the current national average gasoline price is $4.48 per gallon, having continued to rise since the conflict broke out.
Recently, the sharp surge in diesel prices has begun to have a substantial impact on farmers and truck drivers, and Republican lawmakers in Midwestern states have expressed clear concerns about this.
Electoral pressure is changing the political calculations of some lawmakers. North Dakota Republican Senator Kevin Cramer admitted that in front of voters overwhelmed by economic anxiety, Republicans find it difficult to present a convincing governing record. He said:
The problem is, what you've done for voters recently barely counts.
US lawmakers are expected to devote themselves to campaigning throughout October, and how to explain to voters what actions they have taken to bring down gas prices will become an unavoidable question for Republican candidates.
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